When developing your lead generation processes, you may need more than fresh cold calling techniques or a mailing list of prospects; you need insights into “how” and “why” the sales process works like it does, and fresh ideas for how to make it better.

When you’re dealing with lead generation for B2B sales leads, you need to keep in mind that the sales cycle can be a long process with the possibility of ups and downs along the way, even during the early stages of initial processes and qualifying B2B sales leads.

The appointment setting process often leads to frustration when prospects don’t show up. Sales people know to expect a certain number of “no shows” and cancellations, but if your no show rate is higher than average, perhaps you should consider the reasons why.

Here are a few insights into why prospects fail to appear for your new business appointments.

“We have reviewed your website and we have no need for your services.” If you have advanced to this point in your lead generation process, chances are you are “surprised” to hear this response. Your first conversation with this prospect most likely uncovered some pain issues that you can help solve. In this scenario the above response is often “code” for “I haven’t been to your website yet and haven’t even reviewed the information you e-mailed to me a few days ago.” Your prospect may have an interest in your services but they haven’t done their homework. Chances are they are behind on many other deadlines and their excuse is just like having to explain to your 6^th grade teacher why you haven’t done your homework. Instead it’s easier to blow off the appointment.

How to handle: Stay patient. Keep in mind that the pain issues that you picked up in your first conversations are still accurate. Your solutions to these issues are also still valid. It’s time to move on to a new level of contact with the company. For example, if you have previously been talking with a director level decision maker, begin targeting a new contact at the VP level.

“My boss called me in to a meeting. Sorry I was unavailable.” Actually your contact was not in the boss’s office…he or she was frantically preparing a sales report that needed to be submitted to senior management several days ago. The report shows sales are flat for the month. Panic! Finally the VP (your contact’s boss) sent an e-mail that he needs the report by 10 a.m. Your appointment was at 9 a.m.

How to handle: Stay calm. Don’t jump to the conclusion that the prospect’s behavior is an indication that they are not interested. Instead, give the prospect some space and try to reschedule. This prospect might still have a strong interest (and a strong sense of “pain” showing them that they need your product). Let the prospect save face – give them a chance to choose the next appointment date.

“I talked with my boss about your services and we have no interest at this time.” Well, that might sound believable but you haven’t even discussed your solution with this person. This is the famous “good guy/bad guy” excuse. The prospect is saying, “I can’t take the blame for the fact that my boss doesn’t share my enthusiasm for your services. He’s the bad guy…and I did you a favor by taking your services to him and you should be very thankful for that.”

How to handle: Shore up your relationship with the immediate prospect, regardless of what your contact says the the boss thinks. Play along and empathize with how frustrating that must be for your contact. Even if the prospect mentioned your solution to their boss, you know your solutions were not discussed in detail. After all that was what you were going to do on your appointment. Don’t forget, you haven’t had a chance to present your capabilities in any detail yet. In a very low-key manner, discuss this with your contact and re-invite the prospect to spend 15 – 20 minutes to look at your solution.

“This is not something we are going to do this year….touch base with us next budget cycle.” This is code for: “If we had your solution in place, I would probably have the time to listen to what you have to say. In the meantime I am treading water and I don’t want to ask my boss for anything new as I already can’t get done with everything I need to do.”

How to handle: This is a classic appointment shutdown. Regroup and follow the procedures in section 1 above.  You need to find a level of contact within the company that is willing to get on the solutions side of the company’s problems. It’s important to identify these types of decision makers who know their existing systems are dysfunctional, even though they have no time to invest in solutions. Move on to a higher level of contact.

No call…no return call…no apology. This might sound like bad news, but sometimes “no news is good news.” The “silent no-shows” are often the easiest appointments to reschedule. The reason is that you haven’t heard the prospect say they were “not interested.”

How to handle: The key to getting this appointment rescheduled is to get the prospect on the phone live. When rescheduling these appointments don’t leave messages or send e-mails. Instead, simply dial on the lead until you get the prospect live and proceed with the assumption that the prospect is willing to reschedule.

How many of these “no show excuses” sound familiar to you? And how can you adjust your activities accordingly? Instead of spending time and money trying to generate more business leads, perhaps you could take a closer look at how you manage your “no shows” from existing sales leads. By following up, listening to the subtext of what your prospects are saying to you, and staying focused on finding the right decision makers to speak with at the prospect’s organization, there are many ways to turn “no shows” into sales.

Are you looking for lead generation companies who will go beyond the “same old” to help your sales improve? Talk to Strategic Sales & Marketing and see how we can help you with your B2B lead generation process. Strategic Sales & Marketing is a “leading light” among lead generation companies, with an industry-leading team of B2B sales consultants and appointment setters offering comprehensive lead generation services. We work with our clients to help them find solutions for their B2B lead generation challenges, helping them achieve more efficient appointment setting, better qualified B2B sales leads and bigger sales results. Contact Strategic Sales & Marketing for a free quick quote or a free, no obligation Test Drive of our lead generation services.

For many sales organizations, lead generation is the place where sales and marketing combine and too often, collide. Dividing responsibilities between the “marketing” and “sales” teams can often be a cause for confusion, especially when the marketing team is taking on additional lead generation responsibilities that used to belong to the sales team.

If your organization is trying to get more mileage out of your B2B lead generation efforts, it might help to take a fresh look at where your “marketing” activities stop, and where your “sales” activities begin. To maximize your lead generation opportunities, it helps to make sure that no one is dropping the baton during the handoff between the marketing and sales teams.

According to a recent survey by MarketingSherpa, many companies are missing opportunities to better qualify their B2B sales leads, better understand the unique pain and problems that their prospects are facing, and create better-qualified appointment setting opportunities.

Unless your organization is clarifying the expectations for both your marketing and sales teams, it is possible that no one is taking responsibility for these essential aspects of lead generation.

As we’ve seen hundreds of times working for clients over the years, if your company is simply pouring more sales leads into the funnel, but without any proven process for filtering out the sales leads, you’re wasting resources, wasting time and missing out on big sales opportunities.

Here are three worrisome signs that your company is “dropping the baton” during the lead generation hand-off between marketing and sales.

1. You’re not identifying a sales funnel: Perhaps this sounds like an extreme example, but it happens. According to the survey, 68% of companies have not identified a sales funnel at all. Without a standard process for filtering, measuring, tracking, evaluating, sorting and prioritizing sales leads, your sales team is flying blind.

2. No one is qualifying your B2B sales leads: According to MarketingSherpa, only 27% of B2B sales leads are qualified and ready prior to being passed on to the sales team. This is a common mistake that companies make with their B2B lead generation efforts: they pull out all the stops to obtain new business leads, but then don’t put any time or resources into qualifying the sales leads. This leads to wasted time and frustration as the sales team puts in many fruitless hours on the phone with prospects that aren’t ready to buy.

3. You’re not nurturing your existing business leads: What happens to your B2B sales leads once they’re in the pipeline, but not immediately ready to buy? Too often, companies are leaving money on the table by neglecting to follow-up with existing sales leads. Instead of assuming that a “not interested” response means that the prospect is “not interested” forever, your company needs to conduct ongoing lead nurturing to stay in contact with these prospects. 34% of the MarketingSherpa survey respondents said they contact their prospects once a month for lead nurturing follow-up, and 22% contact their business leads weekly.

Looking for lead generation companies to help manage your sales leads? Talk to Strategic Sales & Marketing for comprehensive lead management services to help you through the B2B lead generation process. Our industry-leading B2B sales consultants and appointment setters know how to cultivate, qualify and close on complex B2B sales leads in a variety of industries. We can help you find more sales leads, better qualify your sales leads, conduct more efficient appointment setting, and improve conversion rates to overcome your B2B lead generation challenges and turn B2B sales leads into bigger sales results.

Contact Strategic Sales & Marketing for a free quick quote or a free, no obligation Test Drive of our lead generation services.

“Hi, this is Bob Jones. We have an appointment tomorrow at 10 a.m. Would you like to cancel?”

It sounds ridiculous, right? No one would intentionally call a prospect as part of an appointment setting call and set themselves up for a cancellation. However, if you take a closer look at your appointment setting process, if you aren’t careful when calling to confirm your sales appointments, you might as well be asking for a cancellation.

Remember, your prospects are busier than ever before, running here and there putting out fires. If you have gotten far enough in your appointment setting process to schedule a face-to-face meeting, then chances are good that the prospect is interested enough to want to listen. Chances are you’ve done a lot of work qualifying and sorting your business leads to get this far.

However, once the day of the meeting rolls around, there may likely be something more urgent that has risen for the prospect. Calling to confirm might inadvertently remind the decision maker of how busy he/she is, and give them an easy excuse to back out of the meeting. But at the same time, as part of your appointment setting follow-up, you want to make sure the prospect is expecting you, and the appointment hasn’t slipped his mind.

One easy way around this is to place your confirmation call after-hours the day before the meeting and leave your reminder on voice mail. This way, your prospect gets the message first thing in the morning and will be expecting you.

Could the prospect still cancel? Sure. But if he hasn’t gotten proactive and called to cancel before the day of the meeting, then chances are good that he won’t do it the day of.

As you’ve surely seen during the appointment setting process, the prospect has overcome a lot of resistance to find time to meet with you. If you suddenly ask for a phone conference instead, he might think you aren’t that interested in talking to him seriously, and he could decide that YOU’RE not worth HIS time.

Even if circumstances (changes in travel plans, weather, etc.) dictate that you can’t meet face-to-face for some reason, suggest video conferencing, rather than a simple phone call. Video conferencing is the next best thing to actually being in the room with the prospect, and you can communicate with your prospects from virtually anywhere.

Take care not to accidentally undermine your appointment setting. After so much time qualifying sales leads, building relationships and inching your way to the prospect’s door, you don’t want to make the mistake of giving your prospect an invitation to cancel.

The appointment setting process can be fraught with pitfalls, and even if your sales team is full of veteran appointment setters we all can learn a thing or two from some outside experts. If you’re ready to boost the appointment setting performance of your sales team, get access to better qualified B2B sales leads, and enhance the effectiveness of your overall B2B lead generation program, contact Strategic Sales & Marketing for a quick quote or a free, no obligation Test Drive of our appointment setting services.

Warming Up the Cold Call: Choose Your First Sales Qualification Question Carefully

Imagine you walk into a store you’ve never been in before. As soon as set foot inside the door, you’re approached by someone wearing a name tag and a huge, insincere smile.

“Welcome to THE STORE. Will you be paying by cash or credit?”

Startled, you manage to stammer “I-I’m just looking, thanks.”

“Great! Want me to hold onto your credit card for you while you shop?”

You’d figure out really quickly what matters most to people at THE STORE, wouldn’t you? It’s not about you; it’s all about the money – their money. Overly aggressive introductions like these show that the sales person only wants to close the sale.

Obviously this is an extreme example, but many sales people make similar mistakes when opening conversations and qualifying sales leads during appointment setting calls.

Instead of doing the equivalent of blatantly asking for the customer’s credit card, your first qualification question should be the least intrusive question that you ask. Why? Your relationship with the decision maker is brand new. You don’t know this decision maker yet and they don’t know you. You don’t want to assume too much or sound too eager or appear pushy. Instead you should use a softer approach that lets you be consultative and helpful.

Asking a question like “Are you in the market for a new system?” without first developing a relationship is going to be perceived as an as pushy.  You don’t want to come across as someone who’s only after the sale, only interested in your commission. These types of hard-sell tactics are the hallmark of fly by night operations, inexperienced sales people, or untrustworthy types that good customers won’t want to buy from.

When you’re in the process of appointment setting and qualifying business leads, you will increase your chances of getting qualification questions answered if you slow down your process. Don’t be in too big of a hurry to “make The Ask.” Instead, build a relationship first.

Here are a few examples of good opening questions that you can use when qualifying sales leads:

• I noticed you are a Microsoft Solutions Partner…how helpful has that been to help you open doors?
• I noticed that you are using bar-coding in your warehouse; how has that been working out?
• I read recently that you just won Toyota Manufacturing as a new account. Congratulations. That must be huge! (Okay, that’s not a question…but it does show that you took the time to find out about their business, AND it sets up the questions about how they plan on handling the influx of new work.)

The processes of lead generation, appointment setting and qualifying sales leads are not the same as sales. Too many sales people make the mistake of chasing the sale and trying to close the deal far too early in the process – when they should be focused on appointment setting instead.

Lead generation and appointment setting is a matter of figuring out whether or not a prospect is the right fit for your product or service. They’re not all going to buy from you. They’re not all going to meet with you – and if you have a good appointment setting program, you know that you don’t WANT to meet with all of them because it will take up valuable time that could be devoted to other prospects.

Even though you’re a sales person, asking for the sale upfront is not the way to do successful appointment setting calls. Instead, when you’re focused on qualifying sales leads and doing appointment setting, you need to leave your “sales hat” at the door. Remember you’re trying to find out whether or not there is a way you can help this person. In order to know that, that person has to tell you what sort of help he or she needs. And before he or she tells you that, they have to trust you first.

Are you looking for fresh insights on your appointment setting process? Talk to Strategic Sales & Marketing. Our team of experienced appointment setters help our clients with B2B lead generation and appointment setting services, creating better qualified B2B sales leads and bigger sales results. Contact Strategic Sales & Marketing for a free quick quote or a free, no obligation Test Drive of our appointment setting services.

One of the frequently asked questions that we get from clients here at Strategic Sales & Marketing is: “What is the difference between lead generation and lead management?”

The answer is really quite simple, but if you don’t know the difference, you could end up making some costly mistakes in your B2B lead generation efforts.

Here’s the difference:

Lead generation is what you need to do when you don’t have any sales leads. If there are no prospects in the pipeline, or not enough good ones, then you need to ramp up your efforts at finding new business leads.

Lead management is what you need to do when you have plenty of sales leads but you’re having a difficult time managing them. For example, if you have a steady flow of new sales leads, but your appointment setting efforts are failing to keep up, or if you are having a hard time converting your generic sales leads into highly qualified sales prospects.

And the truth is, most sales organizations have both problems. Maybe that sounds counter-intuitive – after all, how could you have both too many sales leads and not enough sales leads at the same time?

Here’s where the problem arises: When you are not managing your sales leads properly (even if you have a steady flow of new business leads coming into the organization), this often creates difficulty in discerning qualified sales leads from unqualified ones. Without a solid process in place to manage your sales leads, you often end up missing out on exceptional opportunities. And as a result, you constantly have to go “back to the well” with your B2B lead generation efforts, spending time and resources drumming up a, never ending supply of new sales leads to continue the search.

Conducting lead generation without effectively managing the sales leads often results in a vicious cycle of spinning your wheels. You spend precious time uncovering new business leads that could be much better spent by properly following through and handling appointment setting for existing sales leads.

One of the immediate goals of a good sales lead management program is to identify and separate your long-range sales leads from your short-range sales leads.

What are short-range and long-range sales leads?

Short-range sales leads are decisive, motivated prospects who are ready to make a decision right now: yes or no, thank you very much. (Sounds easy, right? If only all sales leads could be “short-rangers.”)

Unfortunately, sales leads are not always so easy to classify or so quick to decide. The most challenging task in lead management is managing long-range sales leads – these are the business leads that need extra attention and careful handling over the course of many months. Even though they aren’t ready to buy today, they might change their tune in a few months.

It’s important to be consistent when managing long-range business leads by making sure that everyone on the sales team uses the same procedures. If there are 6 sales reps on your team you can’t have 6 different lead management procedures. Everyone needs to be classifying business leads in the same manner, and following up with the same (or at least similar) techniques. Here are three easy ways to keep your sales leads under control:

• Create a centralized lead management database. Everyone on the sales team needs to be able to access the lead management system, so they can all see the notes on existing sales leads made by other reps.
• Maintain a simple means of internal communications so appointment setting can be conducted in an orderly fashion, so no business leads slip through the cracks, and no sales leads are kept listed in the system against their will. (You don’t want to anger/annoy customers by following up or trying to do appointment setting after they’ve already said “no” to one of your other sales reps.)
• Rank all business leads with consistent criteria, and make sure that long-range sales leads are marked as date-sensitive to ensure follow-up and appointment setting in the correct timeframe.

Lead generation is only part of the equation for sales success; the truth is, managing your sales leads is just as important. With solid lead management processes in place, you won’t need to spend so much time and energy on lead generation. If your lead management program is handling prospects properly, you will relieve a lot of stress from your lead generation program. That will save you time and money, and increase the number of qualified leads you see consistently over time.

Whether you need more energetic lead generation or more meticulous lead management, Strategic Sales & Marketing can help. One of the “leading light” lead generation companies, SSM specializes in lead generation services, offering appointment setters and comprehensive B2B sales and marketing consulting.

When clients come to us for lead generation services, they often think they need one thing (“more sales leads!”) but typically they need something in addition – a better process for qualifying their existing sales leads, or a better way of working to maximize their long-range business leads.

The B2B sales leads pipeline is a unique ecosystem all its own – you need to know how to manage your business leads, conduct the most efficient appointment setting, and put solid processes in place to get the most out of all of your leads.

When developing your lead generation process, you need to take a holistic approach to your sales pipeline. It’s not just a simple matter of finding “more sales leads” to dump in the top of the sales funnel. Instead, you often need to reassess how you’re handling and managing sales leads at every step of the way.

Here are 5 signs that your sales lead pipeline needs a makeover:

1.  You don’t have any new business appointments on your calendar.

When you are closing deals and setting up new clients, it can often be difficult to also “fit in” new business prospecting. Due to the high level of rejection that occurs during cold calling many sales people have a love hate relationship with conducting prospecting calls – so when they’re busy and “business is good,” it’s easy to put prospecting on the back burner. Look back at your calendar and call records over the last 3-4 weeks and check to see how much time you have actually been spending (in the course of an average day and average week) on new business development. Chances are you need to adjust your time allocation. Even when you’re swamped with business, you have to keep feeding the pipeline with new lead generation activities.

2.  You just lost a large client and you don’t have any new clients ready to replace them.

These types of surprises can be avoided by keeping a monthly running total of how many new sales leads you have and what is going to close and when. You can’t always predict when you are going to lose a client, but you can always forecast (and control to a reasonable extent) how many new business leads you have in your pipeline. Don’t get complacent or be lulled to sleep by the “gravy train” of a big client who is covering your sales goals. Staying hungry for new sales leads is the best way to ensure that you’ll never “go hungry.”

3.  Proposals that were likely to close are stalling or dead.

Lead generation should not only be about finding new sales leads, but doing a better job of converting the sales leads that are already in your pipeline. The crucial point to remember is that B2B sales leads are like sharks – they have to keep moving forward, or they die. Any business leads in your pipeline should be advancing toward closing the deal. If not, it’s important to reassess your opportunities and downgrade them as soon as they show signs of weakness. Qualifying leads is an ongoing process, but you need to relentlessly manage your pipeline so that your team of appointment setters isn’t wasting time on low-quality prospects. There might always be some sales leads that fall short of your projections, but if you suddenly find yourself with many once-promising sales opportunities falling into a “sales purgatory,” you need to shift your energies to replace those deals before you lose any existing clients. Part of your lead generation needs to be to assess, re-evaluate and re-focus on existing B2B sales leads.

4.  The deals that you are closing are too small.

There is nothing wrong with writing smaller deals especially if the account has long range potential. But the problem with smaller deals is that they take time to grow…time that you may not have. Too many small deals can clog up your pipeline and create havoc with your sales forecasts. And many sales people will tell you that the smaller accounts often require just as much time, care and energy as the larger accounts. It’s important to check your lead sources and do some research to understand why so many small deals are developing. Good lead generation companies will help you analyze the data and make recommendations on how to boost the average size of your deals, leading to more profitable accounts.

5.   Your most reliable lead sources are stuck in low gear.

A common problem we encounter is that many companies have great B2B sales leads in the pipeline, but not enough of them. This puts a lot of pressure on you to close a high percentage of sales leads off a short list of pipeline prospects. If pickings are slim in your favorite market, you might want to open your lead generation efforts to vertical markets that you haven’t touched in a while. Overworking a segment of business that has been producing sales for you may be actually creating “over marketing” and stagnating your pipeline development.

Are you looking for lead generation companies to deliver fresh insights on your B2B lead generation process? Talk to Strategic Sales & Marketing, a “leading light” among lead generation companies. Our team of experienced appointment setters and consultants offer lead generation services to help our clients with B2B lead generation challenges, leading to more efficient appointment setting, better qualified B2B sales leads and bigger sales results. Contact Strategic Sales & Marketing for a free quick quote or a free, no obligation Test Drive of our lead generation services.

Every New Year brings the promise of renewal and rejuvenation for everyone who works in sales. Jan. 1 presents a clean slate and a chance to do things differently – reconnect with promising prospects, enhance your sales processes, improve your efficiency, and find new ways to add value for customers.

If you’re looking for new ways to take your business to new heights in 2012, you can start by looking at your sales lead management processes. Effectively managing sales leads can make the difference between a top-performing sales organization and an “also-ran.” With most companies facing intensifying competition, pressure on profit margins, and a slow economic recovery, doing things right on the “back end” of your sales process can pay big dividends when it’s time to close the deal.

Here are 4 top New Year’s resolutions that any sales organization can employ to create a more efficient and profitable 2012:

1. Take better care of long range business leads: Wondering why you have a never-ending need for new fresh sales leads? According to a recent study from the Aberdeen Group, only 16% of leads that are deemed sales opportunities actually close. That means that without a formal lead nurturing program, the remaining 84% of qualified leads that do not turn into short-term sales are slipping through the cracks. Sales people are always clamoring for “more business leads,” but they often make the mistake of not stopping to ask, “Are we making the best use of our current sales leads?”

Chances are your sales team – whether they realize or not – are shutting the door on many older business leads. Maybe your sales team completed a follow-up call several months ago (or even a year or two ago) and did not receive a favorable response. This doesn’t mean that the sales leads are truly “done.” Ask yourself, “What has changed since we last approached these business leads?” Perhaps your lineup of services has changed. Perhaps your prospects are now at a different place in their purchasing cycle than they were a year ago. Perhaps your prospects’ business needs have changed. Whatever the change may be, take a fresh start and pursue these “old” business leads with a new angle. What is “old” can be “new” again in the New Year.  We make sure to re-establish contact with “old” sales leads every six months to see if our services are now needed. A lot can change with your prospect’s business in 6 months.

2. Make frequent, frank assessments of your pipeline of business leads: Make honest and realistic assessments of the condition of your sales pipeline. Establish some new benchmarks for 2012 to measure your conversion rates at each step of the sale – and look beyond the simple metrics of conversion-and-close ratios. For example, the Aberdeen study reports that nurtured leads deliver 47% higher average order values. This means that properly managing your pipeline can create a compelling return on investment. Aberdeen also found that nurtured leads result in increased opportunity to sales conversion ratios, and higher bid-to-win ratios. Finding these “hidden value” deals within your pipeline means you need a system of multiple marketing touches to uncover opportunities along the way.

Too many sales pipelines look great on paper or in your database reports, but in reality your projections and probabilities of closing deals may be too “rosy.” Knowledge is power: if your sales pipeline needs to be expanded with additional lead generation efforts, you need to know this as soon as possible so you can react. A better managed sales pipeline will create a more predictable sales process and a smoother revenue curve, without extreme spikes and valleys.

3. When decision makers disappoint you, be patient and have a system in place: Rejection is an occupational hazard in sales, and it’s not easy hearing customers say “No” and “Not interested” all day long. But the reality of a good lead generation and lead management program is that your sales team are always going to have “not interested” responses to sift through. Managing “not interested” responses requires patience, discipline and a consistent system with different protocols to handle the different varieties and “flavors” of responses. For example, if you get a “not interested” response from a key target account that is high on your priority target list, that target account should be put on a monthly e-mail list and set in your “come up” system for a follow up call in 8-12 weeks. “Not interested” does not mean that the conversation is over. Most of the time, when a prospect says they are not interested, they really mean, “We’re not interested right now,” or “The product is not a good fit for our current operational needs.” However, customers’ needs can change rapidly – whether it’s new technology coming on to the market, or trying to keep up with competitors, or adjusting to changing internal dynamics within the customer’s company. Don’t take yourself out of the running by mindlessly disqualifying prospects based on one “not interested” response. You need to be able to handle the nuances of different types of responses and different priority levels of customers – otherwise, you run the risk of constantly contracting your own marketplace, without any system to reintroduce yourself and remarket to your potential customers.

4. Overcome sales call reluctance: Too often, sales people talk themselves out of making a sales call. Whether it’s lack of confidence, lack of understanding of the prospect’s business, or lack of a compelling angle to approach the customer, sales call reluctance is a profit killer. After all, you lose 100% of the sales that you never try to make. How many times have you visited a prospect’s website and then systematically talked yourself out of picking up the phone to make the follow up call? This year, make it a resolution to be more open to possibilities. Be prepared for your prospects to surprise you. Prospects that may not initially fit your ideal client profile (based on what you see on their website) might turn out to be better suited than you expected, once you get them on the phone. It’s not uncommon to find that the website you were looking at is not up to date and doesn’t reflect a recent merger. I can’t begin to tell you how many times prospects might have introduced a new product line, or ended a relationship with a current service provider, and we followed up just at the right time as they were starting their new selection process. You will never know unless you make the call.

Sales is the business of creating something from nothing, making the calls and making things happen with customers every day. Every year is a chance to make a bigger difference for our customers, our companies and ourselves. I hope these New Year’s resolutions will help you get out there and have a great start to 2012!

About the Author
Al Davidson is the founder of Strategic Sales & Marketing, a “leading light” among lead generation companies since 1989, helping to deliver B2B lead generation and appointment setting services for global clients ranging from local small businesses to the Fortune 100. The company’s sales agents have generated over 7 million new sales leads, and created millions of dollars in new revenue for clients. You can learn more about Al Davidson by visiting http://www.manageyourleads.com/

Getting to the proposal stage of a sale is usually reason to celebrate. After all, the metrics of proposal writing are simple: the more proposals you write, the more sales you are going to close. But many sales people get carried away with producing sales proposals in an assembly line fashion in an effort to keep a full pipeline of business leads. Most sales managers support this kind of high-intensity sales proposal writing, because sales managers and reps thrive on a busy pipeline of sales leads.

The problem with writing too many sales proposals is that proposal writing and rewriting can be counterproductive, especially if too many of your proposals are ending up in the great sales “purgatory” where business leads get stalled between “no” and ”yes.” Simply churning out sales proposals without a larger sense of strategy and discipline in your B2B lead generation is likely to leave you with a full pipeline of sales leads that never get resolved.

Sales teams view writing sales proposals as a form of high-energy lead generation. But too often, in the act of writing proposals, they do not make the necessary effort to customize the proposal to the client’s needs. Without a sense of strategy and listening to the client’s specific needs, your sales team is going to be pitching a pre-packaged system that is not what the client wants or needs.

Don’t confuse “energy” and “action” with “results.” Your sales team might spend all day writing sales proposals, only to close a tiny percentage of deals. This is inefficient and a huge missed opportunity. Instead of using a “machine gun” approach – firing out sales proposals as fast as possible, in every direction – you need to take a “rifle” approach by selecting a specific target, planning your effort and taking your time.

Sales people are often impatient for action, but here is why a bit of patience is so important: even before you get to the point of trying to do appointment setting, you’ve already invested so much time qualifying the sales leads and ushering them through the sales funnel. So why are you trying for a fast deal?

Without careful planning and a clear understanding of the prospect’s needs, the sales proposal is going to need to be resubmitted again and again. (If the prospect doesn’t lose patience and call off the conversation altogether.) Unless your sales people stop cranking out proposals and start asking the right questions to qualify their sales leads, they’re going to find themselves spending all of their time on endless rewriting and resubmitting of proposals.

Excessive proposal writing (and rewriting) is the last refuge of a sales person who doesn’t want to do the hard work of qualifying sales leads and delving deeper into the client’s needs. It’s easier to just keep writing proposals in an effort to “look busy.”

Here’s what happens in a case like this:

• The client said no to the original proposal.
• Instead of taking the time to ask questions, listen to the client’s unspoken needs, and flush out the real objection, the sales person gets impatient (“But I can TASTE the sale! It’s that close!”)
• Fueled by impatience, the sales person starts rewriting the proposal, throwing more systems, services and products at the client in the hopes that something would stick this time.
• In the process of trying desperately to reel in the sale, you’re simply pushing the client further away. The sales person might be thinking, “They’re close to making a buying decision…but I guess they just don’t get it.” Meanwhile, the client is thinking, “This sales person just doesn’t understand our needs. I’m going to go talk to one of their competitors instead.”

Why do proposals end up in sales purgatory? Too often, it’s lack of effective follow through, and no clear commitment being requested from the prospect.

If your sales team is simply sending proposals (by e-mail, fax or mail) to the decision maker in the hope that the prospect is going to call back and buy, you’re going to be disappointed. When was the last time a client immediately called back and agreed to buy, based simply on a few words on paper? And no matter how persuasive your proposal, it isn’t going to be able to answer any questions that weren’t anticipated when it was written.

Never send a sales proposal without first conducting an appointment setting call to arrange a time to discuss it in detail. Without a sales person attached to the proposal, nothing will happen. If you simply put a written proposal in front of a decision maker, most of the time he will simply look at your price and overlook the important details of what you are really offering.

The best selling moments arise from a sales person, in person, presenting the proposal. Instead of a dead piece of paper or numbers on a screen in front of the prospect, the proposal becomes the centerpiece of a face -to-face exchange between you. Instead of passive information, the proposal becomes a dynamic process between two people.

Instead of a “yes or no,” (and it’s all too easy to get a “no” when you simply send a proposal with no additional context), discussing the proposal in person creates a dynamic of “What-if and why-not?” Most deals are closed at these types of specific, focused meetings, not by hoping for sudden results from “deals in the pipeline.” If you rely too much on written proposals and regularly miss these “live” selling events, your sales cycle will be twice as long as it has to be…if it doesn’t break down entirely.

Do you want to take your pipeline of sales leads from “purgatory” to “paradise?” Strategic Sales & Marketing is one of the industry’s most experienced lead generation companies, specializing in helping companies improve their sales processes with sophisticated lead generation services and rigorous lead management. Our services range from appointment setters to sales coaching to B2B marketing consulting.

We’ve been in the sales lead management and lead generation business for the past 22 years, and during that time we’ve seen a lot of continuous “rebranding” and confusion about what the definitions of “sales leads” and “business leads” really are.

A simple Google search for “sales leads” creates a long list of definitions and companies who are trying to sell business leads or offer lead generation services. At the low end of the scale, companies might try to sell “business leads” that are just a simple listing of the company name, contact name, city, state and ZIP code – without any further intelligence, research or insights. ”Sales leads” might also be more complex, containing proprietary and exclusive data that is developed for your company based on your specific qualification criteria.

Before you spend money on a mailing list of “business leads” for your company, do some research and ask questions to find out exactly what you’re buying. How much detail have you been promised by the lead generation company? Will there be any additional support offered for appointment setting, or are they basically just giving you a mailing list?

Different lead generation companies offer varying levels of added value. Unfortunately there are less-than-reputable appointment setters and fly-by-night lead generation companies who claim to offer legitimate lead generation services, but who fail to follow up on their promises. If you’re going to spend money on lead generation services, you ought to be getting added value, not just a mailing list or phone list that you could have gotten from YellowPages.com.

Another area of confusion in the B2B lead generation industry is that many companies don’t seem to understand the difference between a prospect and a sales lead.

While different industries and segments have their own unique terminology, from our perspective, “sales leads” is more of a general term. Anyone who might potentially be interested in buying what you have to offer can qualify as one of your “sales leads.” The goal is to convert your sales leads into prospects – highly motivated buyers who are ready to make a decision and buy from you.

Turning a basic sales lead into a promising “prospect” is a matter of understanding pain and motivation. What is the “pain point” or problem that your product/service/solution is going to solve? Do you understand the customer’s specific needs and perspectives, and can you adapt your conversation and style to show them that you understand those needs?

Only by understanding the customer’s pain and offering a specific solution can you give the customer the motivation to act.

Understanding the customer’s needs and motivations is the best way to start with a list of generic “sales leads” (just names on a list) and convert them to a focused, interested, motivated list of ready-to-buy “prospects.”

Anyone can give you a list of names and call them “sales leads.” The real added value in B2B lead generation services comes from delivering insights in how you can manage your business leads, conduct more efficient appointment setting, and ultimately understand the specific pain points and motivations that drive your customers’ buying decisions.

Al Davidson is the Founder and CEO of Strategic Sales & Marketing, a lead generation and appointment setting firm specializing in generating high-quality business leads. Al Davidson and his team have conducted over 50 million business presentations and generated millions of dollars in new revenue for clients in a variety of industries. Talk to Strategic Sales & Marketing to take your lead generation program to the next level.

Few things are more frustrating for a sales person than encountering “no show” sales leads. When you go through your daily schedule, putting out fires and dealing with client emergencies and making every effort to be on time to your appointments with sales leads – only to find out that the prospect has had to cancel, that can be disappointing, to say the least.

However, even more important than the fact that your sales leads are missing their meetings is the way in which you react. Too often, sales people get discouraged by “no show” sales leads and come to the conclusion that the prospect was an unqualified lead, or not really interested, or is feeling premature “buyer’s remorse” for agreeing to the appointment setting in the first place. You might start to wonder, is your entire system of B2B lead generation and qualifying business leads broken?

The truth is, it’s best not to overreact to “no show” sales leads. Don’t read too much into one missed meeting with a prospect. Instead of assuming that the prospect isn’t interested and the deal is hopeless, just contact the prospect, get started with a second attempt at appointment setting, and move on.

The fact is that a very small percentage of these “no show” sales leads ARE unqualified and that is just a reality of lead generation. Some prospects have a problem saying “no” and therefore they get caught up in the prospecting “net” even though they aren’t interested. Dealing with occasional “no show” sales leads is not a sign that your lead generation process is broken. Every B2B lead generation effort that produces great business leads is also going to produce a certain percentage of “unqualified” sales leads, and as long as your “unqualified” sales leads are less than 10% of total sales leads (this percentage may be higher, depending on your industry), you should accept this as a cost of doing business and move on to the next thing on your schedule.

You don’t want to calibrate your lead generation process so tightly that it weeds out too many sales leads. It is better to have to deal with a few unqualified prospects rather than miss even one qualified prospect. It’s OK if a few unqualified sales leads slip through the “filter” of your sales funnel, as long as you have a good enough volume of high quality business leads that make it through along with them.

But aside from the unqualified sales leads, who are the other “no show” business leads on your schedule? What does it mean when you’ve had positive initial calls, the prospect has been receptive to appointment setting requests, the prospect is relating significant pain (that your solution can solve) and has proven to have motivation to make a buying decision..and then the prospect doesn’t show up for a meeting?

Often this is nothing more significant than a case of your sales leads being too busy to meet with you. Keep in mind that even as busy as you are, you’re not the only one with fires to put out. Chances are, your highly qualified “no show” sales leads are dealing with urgent problems, and unfortunately, in the grand scheme of things, you are probably not as important to the prospect as the prospect is to you.

Here are a few things to think about to put “no show” sales leads in perspective:

1) You’re a sales person, and so to the decision maker, you are probably lowest on the priority list. Who is ahead of you? The decision maker’s clients (fire), boss (fire), wife (fire), kids (fire), co-workers (fires galore) and a host of little brush fires that burn continuously in the decision maker’s work day.

2) The customer is always right, and the seller always waits. The unspoken rule of customer service is that if you are selling me something, then you have to cater to my schedule: as the buyer, I have the right to make you wait, stand you up, not return your phone calls and otherwise ignore you. After all, I’m busy trying to keep my world from burning down around me. Sure this is frustrating, but don’t assume that the prospect isn’t interested.

3) If you need to reschedule and go back to the appointment setting phase of the sales process, do it (without complaints). And if the prospect is a “no show” again, reschedule again. Go with the flow.

At best, when you arrive for a sales meeting with a prospect, you are a welcome break from his long day of putting out fires. At worst, you are just another fire – another problem to be solved. Even if you are trying to sell the ultimate tool to help him fight fires, if he agrees, he’s got to find the funding—maybe even fight to get approval—to close the deal to purchase your product or service.

In the end, as with so much else in the sales profession, when it comes to “no show” business leads, all you can control is your own attitude. Make sure you are helping to relieve your prospect’s burdens, not adding to them. Don’t assume the worst about the client’s intentions. Most of all, don’t give up. Sometimes even the most persistently hard-to-reach “no show” sales leads will come through for you in the end.

Ready to “put out some fires” in your B2B lead generation process? Talk to Strategic Sales & Marketing to get actionable advice and high-quality sales leads from one of the industry’s most respected lead generation companies. We specialize in lead generation and lead management for complex B2B sales challenges, with sophisticated appointment setting services ranging from appointment setters to sales coaching to B2B marketing consulting.